Macbook and "faulty" touchpad

MDE

MDE

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Hey,

My fiancée has had her Macbook for a while now (year probably) and only recently has the track pad being giving issues. The problem is not the whole touch pad but more the left and right click keys.

So she decided to take it into Digicape in the CBD and was given a strange call that everything was fine and no problems?

So she went to pick the device up and while chatting to the guy behind the counter a gentleman behind her overheard what they were talking about and said "He had a Macbook a while back and had the same issue and that it was caused by the battery (as its just below the touch pad apparently) heating up due to normal use and that the keys would malfunction.

Question: why has this only happened now after a year and not before?

Has anyone else experienced this before?

Regards
Matt
 
Hey,
Had exactly the same thing happen to me. If you google it you will see that it is actually quite a common problem where the battery swells up and pushes up against the touchpad. You can actually remove the battery yourself and check if it is indeed swollen before buying a new one. The laptop was also about a year old when this happened - basically its just sub standard parts used for the battery, though if you read up on this apple try pass it off as a 'safety feature' :D
 
Should be simple to test - take out the battery, plug in the power supply and see if the problem persists. Just be careful not to dislodge the cord! :)

I had a similar bulging battery problem in an old macbook pro. It was a known problem with that particular battery/laptop so Apple replaced the battery free of charge even though it was well out of warranty.
 
Can the battery be removed ? I thought that the newish Macbook / Pro had non end-user removable batteries ?


bwana said:
Should be simple to test - take out the battery, plug in the power supply and see if the problem persists. Just be careful not to dislodge the cord! :)

I had a similar bulging battery problem in an old macbook pro. It was a known problem with that particular battery/laptop so Apple replaced the battery free of charge even though it was well out of warranty.
Click to expand...
 
Aaaah... indeed bwana.

It is the Air that has a soldered battery.

Ta.
 
Aaah awesome thanks guys! Really appreciate at it. Do you know off hand what the cost of a new battery would be? The Mac she has is pretty much identical to the one in the ifixit images. As I know Digicape likes to charge an arm and both legs to fix anything! They charge her R450 to run disk utilities (cant remeber exactly what its called)
 
MDE said:
Aaah awesome thanks guys! Really appreciate at it. Do you know off hand what the cost of a new battery would be? The Mac she has is pretty much identical to the one in the ifixit images. As I know Digicape likes to charge an arm and both legs to fix anything! They charge her R450 to run disk utilities (cant remeber exactly what its called)
Click to expand...
Not all that expensive http://www.zastore.co.za/prodlist.php?cid=LAC R1299
 
Last edited:
kilobits said:
Aaaah... indeed bwana.

It is the Air that has a soldered battery.

Ta.
Click to expand...
Nope -- if you look at this ifix breakdown you can clearly see the battery is easily replaced.http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Air-13-Inch-Mid-2011-Teardown/6130/1

The RAM appears soldered (so practically impossible)
The SSD can be however be upgraded with solutions from for example: OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Express

So it's best to buy the Air with max RAM...
 
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Ah.. again. Thanks for clearing that up. Family member was looking at the Air, and was told that the battery is not replaceable, or has to be sent away to replace because it was soldered on... never mentioned the RAM being tho'. This was at the V&A Waterfront.

I assumed it to be thus...

[)roi(];7284287 said:
Nope -- if you look at this ifix breakdown you can clearly see the battery is easily replaced.http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Air-13-Inch-Mid-2011-Teardown/6130/1

The RAM appears soldered (so practically impossible)
The SSD can be however be upgraded with solutions from for example: OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Express

So it's best to buy the Air with max RAM...
Click to expand...
 
kilobits said:
Ah.. again. Thanks for clearing that up. Family member was looking at the Air, and was told that the battery is not replaceable, or has to be sent away to replace because it was soldered on... never mentioned the RAM being tho'. This was at the V&A Waterfront.

I assumed it to be thus...
Click to expand...
I bought one for my Niece (brother's daughter) recently, maxed out the RAM and left the rest as is. She's of course really happy with it, for me personally I still prefer the MacBook Pro re no sacrificing power and upgradeability.
 
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